Design Thinking: Paper Prototype Interaction

We had the wonderful opportunity to interview and playtest with some great high school students from the Broome Street Academy. We had a series of questions designed to gauge their online tutorial behavior, what platforms they prefer, and how they might design or make use of text-based learning groups to augment their classroom learning.

For the students who were already users of WhatsApp, we gave them paper prototypes and also clear film overlays that could affix to their cellphone to playtest some ideas for the WhatsApp learning-thread interface.

When asked what they do when they don’t know how to do something, some say they just try to do it themselves without going online, and some said that when they go online they look first at Google, Pinterest, and YouTube.

They liked the idea, when prompted, that something like YouTube could be more participatory and interactive. They agreed that the comments thread and simple thumbs up / thumbs down was a limited way to engage with learning sources.

For the students who didn’t use WhatsApp, we asked them about what they did use for communicating with their peers about school and where they went for extra tutorials – both academic and extracurricular. They reported being big users of YouTube, Pinterest, Google, and Viber.

On YouTube, they follow certain teachers’ accounts where they know they can find help with subjects like Chemistry, Algebra and general Math. They also like YouTube for DIY tutorials, musical instrument tutorials (guitar), and social skill building (“how to get a girlfriend”). For design and beauty tutorials they like Pinterest, and for international communications with family they reported having a parent who commonly uses Viber.

When prompted, some students didn’t feel confident about the idea of posting their own videos or skill share tutorials. They didn’t think they were qualified to post something like that, and they also feared teasing or social repurcussions from putting themselves online like that. One student said she’d consider posting funny videos on YouTube, mostly to make her sister laugh. One student mentioned that he had made his YouTube account anonymous so that his peers didn’t know anything about his online behavior on that platform.

They did say they would join an online thread that was about school if it was started by a teacher. They also like Google Doc’s for academic work, and they think that keeps it from getting social. They’re used to communicating with each other via text, so they could see something less tied to that form of communication staying focused and academic.

A system diagram within which your problem exists:

USER TESTING / ACTORS:

Broome Street Academy is a tuition-free public charter high school devoted to providing students the necessary skills and support to graduate prepared for a successful future beyond high school. Our admissions policy gives preference to siblings and students who are homeless, in foster care, or from low performing schools.

Broome Street Academy is uniquely able to provide non-academic services through a close partnership with The Door, New York City’s premiere youth development organization, providing an exceptional model that seamlessly integrates rigorous academics and youth development services all under one roof.

Age group: 12-19

Questions for UserTesting:

– What networks do you currently use the most? (Facebook, twitter, what’s app, youtube..?)
– Do you prefer the visually oriented platforms or the language oriented ones?
– How much do you use youtube for tutorials?
– What kinds of tutorials do you like?
– Would you prefer a live video tutorial to a pre-recorded tutorial?
– What do you do when you don’t know how to do something? do you use google? youtube? do you ask a friend or teacher?

Idea: How can we use the development and advances in technology, specifically MR and Ai to-

LEARN HOW TO UNLEARN OUR LIMITATIONS.

Literacy is a human right and the basis for lifelong learning. It empowers individuals, families and communities and improves their quality of life. Because of its “multiplier effect”, literacy helps eradicate poverty, reduce child mortality, curb population growth, achieve gender equality and ensure sustainable development, peace and democracy.

In today’s rapidly-changing, knowledge based societies where social and political participation takes place both physically and virtually, acquisition of basic literacy skills and the advancement and application of such skills throughout life is crucial. (UNESCO)

According to a study conducted in late April by the U.S. Department of Education and the National Institute of Literacy, 32 million adults in the U.S. can’t read. That’s 14 percent of the population. 21 percent of adults in the U.S. read below a 5th grade level, and 19 percent of high school graduates can’t read. The Huffington Post

The 67.4 million children who are out of school are likely to encounter great difficulties in the future, as deficient or non-existent basic education is the root cause of illiteracy. With some 775 million adults lacking minimum literacy skills, literacy for all thus remains elusive.

We are rushing to develop the smartest most efficient technologies that can transform our notion of “being human” and consider the potential of a “super humanity” with the exploration of mixed and virtual realities. However, how ‘super human’ can we ever think of being when more than 18% of the world’s population cannot read or write, 112 million youth globally are illiterate of which 60.7% are women.

How can we adapt and properly use the rapid advancements of technology worldwide if the first elemental technology-writing/reading/education- is not being encountered?

WE SHOULD BE ABLE TO CHANGE THIS.

This project aims to design a tool for learning.

A bridge between high tech and a fundamental human need/right

To revision, our accepted human “limitations” and the cognitive process by augmenting the possibilities of more efficient learning.

RESEARCH & IDEAS

There are three possible contexts in which we can put this problem statement:

Context 1: There are no banks in the world. We can imagine a world without banks, how would money work then? How can digital currency exists without banks?

Context 2: Design for the unbanked population. What would digital currency look like for someone without access to formal banking services? Can they be brought into a digitized economy without making them open bank accounts?

Context 3: Only we don’t have access to banking. In this you basically want to artificially create the problems of the unbanked population, for yourself, in New York. For example if you decide to go bankless for a month. How can you still digitally pay for day to day stuff.

Out of the three, I feel that we would be able to do most justice to the third context. That is because the scope of context 1 is too big and for the second, we won’t have an easy access to unbanked population in or near NY. This would mean designing in isolation, away from the users.

A distributed database

Picture a spreadsheet that is duplicated thousands of times across a network of computers. Then imagine that this network is designed to regularly update this spreadsheet and you have a basic understanding of the blockchain.

Information held on a blockchain exists as a shared — and continually reconciled — database. This is a way of using the network that has obvious benefits. The blockchain database isn’t stored in any single location, meaning the records it keeps are truly public and easily verifiable. No centralized version of this information exists for a hacker to corrupt. Hosted by millions of computers simultaneously, its data is accessible to anyone on the internet.

“The underlying tech behind much of this is simply peer-to-peer transfer technology based off of mobile phones,” explained Dan Kleinbaum, co-founder and chief operating officer of Beyonic, a tech firm facilitating mobile money payments in Kenya and Uganda; rapid demand is driving expansion to 25 more countries. “Pretty much anywhere you don’t have widespread access to bank accounts but [do have] very high penetration of mobile phones – I’m talking 50 percent to 90 percent – is a good recipe for mobile money and P2P transfers.”

A total of 75 percent of the world’s 7 billion mobile phone subscriptions are in developing countries and similarly high levels of usage are found among refugees. A research study in Uganda found that 89 percent of refugees in urban settings and 46 percent of refugees in rural settlements use mobile phones in their main income-generating activity.

There are 255 mobile money services in 89 countries, according to the GSMA, a mobile money industry group. Besides Kenya’s M-Pesa, top providers are Rwanda’s mVisa; Tanzania’s Tigo Pesa; bKash in Bangladesh, created by the development organization BRAC; and Globe GCash in the Philippines.

The essential ingredient, besides a telecom with a P2P cash transfer mechanism, is a large enough network of agents throughout a country so that no matter where a cash recipient is located, she can find a place to cash out when needed.

Like every Uber country office, Uber Nigeria is a locally incorporated company that hires employees, runs support services, and adapts the platform to meet the demands of local consumers. For example, while Uber riders in most markets pay via credit card through the app, riders in Nigeria and across sub-Saharan Africa have the option to pay in cash. Many of these riders and drivers handle these transactions via mobile money transfers such as M-Pesa.

Readings and Questions

Designing Field Trial Protocols in Ethiopia for Pneumonia Diagnostic Devices

Interesting Concepts:

The importance of: early identification, classification, diagnosis and treatment of children where they need it the most: close to home.

In relation to (ARIDA) versus the beads method:

Question: The contradictions between analog and digital or “sophisticated” technologies to solve humanitarian problems seem to have a complexity of layers, however, most of them go back to education and efficiency. When time is of the essence, is it possible to introduce an element of education or culture awareness to the final solution or design-efficiently?

High Trust in Technology: The user research also showed that patients do have some experience with ‘low-tech’ health products, such as thermometers, stethoscopes, blood pressure meters and pregnancy tests, and they have a high degree of trust in them. Patients generally believe that health technology reduces human error. When one of these tools is used on them, people feel that they have been properly examined; raising confidence in the health worker and potentially reducing their desire to self-medicate, use traditional healing methods or seek advice from unlicensed ‘chemists’.

Thought: This element of “trust” is crucial. In my personal experience, back home in Colombia where the health system, in general, suffers from all kinds of corruption and inefficiencies, people have already lost faith in the system and tend to rely more often on community doctors which sometimes might not be the best solution. However, it would be valuable to provide this community centers with the proper technology that might save lives and slowly educate and regain trust in the potential benefits of the health system.

Question: what are the common causes of pneumonia in these communities? Is there a way to prevent it at all? Is it due to specific environmental conditions linked to cultural traditions? As I read this papers I find it interesting how little we know about the world, and how easy it is to look up in google some fact sheet which I am sure will be the basic knowledge of the typical politician or bureaucrat. But how can we redesign the system so that a person can actually understand or explore the complex situation that a community might be experiencing? How can we pretend to solve a problem when we know so little about the multiple layers that determine a culture?

Community Case Management handbook

Interesting Concepts:

“We do not need a new science or new gadget to address the challenges we face today. What we need is to remove the bottlenecks that prevent these population groups from sustainably accessing essential services.”

One of the key bottlenecks is the ability to know where disparities are the greatest so that resources can be targeted more actively .

Are we reaching the right people?

What are the returns on our investments?

How can we make mid-term course corrections to our programmes based on feedback from real time data?

How can we get the few key pieces of information we need that can help programme managers act in time?

Can mobiles help us improve program- matic outcomes and increase impact?

And how can we engage the people we serve in this process?

How can we use communication technologies to give a stronger voice to community demand for Community Case Management services through Community Health Workers on the front line of care?

Idea: The most common complaint you will get in public/poor hospitals and health service providers in Colombia is: “The nurse or caretaker is always on her mobile and couldn’t care less about the patient.” I have seen this situation first hand and it is quite impressive how mobile phones affect the already poor service quality in hospital but also other public service centers.

However, it is such an intrinsic element of their realities that it seems quite smart to give it a turn and benefit from it somehow. I am not sure if it will work at all, but in the case of the nurses and caretakers, it would be interesting to see what happens if they were given an incentive for everytime they use a specific mobile app to help a patient. The incentive might be that they will be given free internet data for personal use.

Rather than forcing hierarchical, linear chains of communications, look for overlaps in the system.

UBER & Drones

It is through its hyper focus on efficiency that Uber may have the most potential to benefit riders and drivers across the 473 cities and 76 countries where it works.

Early stage impact and long term potential in areas like safe roads and clean air that have traditionally fallen within the domain of aid agencies.

Uber is a testament that the global development community needs to continue pushing the envelope in terms of innovations that promote sustainable transport.

Uber advertises the flexibility the platform gives drivers to be their own bosses.

Question: How can we as designers, create or remodel and make attractive the idea of investing in doing good. How can we make “doing good” the next big thing in finance?